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Elm St. part of a liberating trend

Every city in North America has an Elm St. Toronto's is shorter than many, but very lively and urban. Located just blocks north of the city's busiest intersection – Yonge and Dundas – it is one of those minor thoroughfares in which great cities abound. Lined with restaurants, shops, condos and some fabulous historical buildings, our Elm St. is definitely a destination as well as a transit corridor.

Minto Plaza’s enormous complex extends west from Elm St. to Bay and from there north.

Every city in North America has an Elm St. Toronto's is shorter than many, but very lively and urban. Located just blocks north of the city's busiest intersection – Yonge and Dundas – it is one of those minor thoroughfares in which great cities abound. Lined with restaurants, shops, condos and some fabulous historical buildings, our Elm St. is definitely a destination as well as a transit corridor.

On the other hand, compared to the exquisite Romanesque heap now occupied by the Elmwood Club and St. George Hall, long-time home of the Arts and Letters Club, the recent arrivals leave much to be desired. There's no question that the last few decades have not been good to Toronto, or any other city for that matter. In the postwar period, architecture bottomed out and city planning has been disastrous.

That's starting to change, albeit slowly and with much moaning and groaning from developers used to having things on their own terms. Thus, in its own quiet way, Elm St. offers a quick survey of the city going back to the 1800s.

Though it wasn't the kind of neighbourhood where people chose to live, that has all changed now. This same thing has happened throughout downtown and is one of the reasons why Toronto's future looks as good as it does. If nothing else, the condo boom has allowed thousands to inhabit the city and avoid contributing to the sprawl that has disfigured much of southern Ontario. So it's hardly surprising that Elm St. sums up the 21st-century urban ideal; close to any number of things both practical and pleasurable, it's one of those places that offers the possibility of living car-free – in other words, of liberation.

Minto Plaza, 38 Elm St.: It's not much to look at but on the other hand, try to find a better location.

This enormous complex extends west from Elm St. to Bay and from there north. The residential part, which faces south onto Elm is clearly different from the commercial/institutional section, which looks out onto Bay.

Unfortunately, nothing about Minto Plaza could be considered attractive; indeed, it is one of those late 20th-century projects in which glitz was mistaken for quality. But simply adding polished marble to the facade does not an interesting building make. And in this case, the high-quality materials do little to improve on a design that feels unresolved throughout.

The streetscape, that begins with such promise at Yonge St., falls apart at the entrance to the entirely misbegotten Delta Chelsea Hotel and never recovers after that.

Minto Plaza feels like some giant generic scheme that was shoehorned into the site without any thought to context. In some situations, that wouldn't be a problem, but here, where the surroundings are so rich in history and character, it's a shame. Why not take advantage of beauty if it exists so close by?

Despite the mostly successful attempt to bring life to the sidewalk, it's not enough to compensate for the confusion above. Above all, perhaps, Minto Plaza is a product of a time that viewed the city with some ambivalence. Developers wanted to build in the city, without being part of it. It's a tough balancing act to pull off, and this one tries but falls.

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